


Break Me Down, Build Me Up

by batgirl856



Category: Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), Red Hood: Lost Days
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Dark Barbara Gordon, F/M, How To Train Your Boyfriend, I'm back on my jaybabs bullshit, Jason Todd has mild OCD, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Jason is a Dork, The tags are all warnings, so be prepared
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27680171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batgirl856/pseuds/batgirl856
Summary: When she first saw him, she knew. This was the one. It might take some time for him to agree, but eventually, he'll see.***She was never Batgirl. Jim Gordon died as a beat cop when Barbara was 12, shortly after her mother left because her brother was killed in a break in. After that, she disappeared. No one in Gotham knows where she went, no one could find her, and soon, she was forgotten. Now Barbara has returned, having risen from the ashes of tragedy and remade herself as the Blood Phoenix of Gotham.
Relationships: Barbara Gordon/Jason Todd
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Break Me Down, Build Me Up

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is totally an AU. Jason's history is exactly the same, minus Babs. She was never there. She was never Batgirl.

_"This is all your fault, James!"_

_"Honey, I–"_

_"No, really? Leaving a ten year old, our child, at home alone? For five hours?" Hot tears streamed down Barbara's face, prickling in her eyes before spilling over the folds of her eyelids._

_"I didn't mean to be away for so long, I just got caught up at work, that's all!" Jim reasoned, knowing that there was no way his wife would ever forgive him._

_"That's all? Our son is dead, Jim. But I guess that's all, right? Not that bad, huh?" she yelled, her tone bitter and filled with malice._

_"Barb–"_

_"No I get it! That's all! If James Jr dying isn't that big of a deal, I'm sure you wont mind me leaving, will you? Goodbye, James."_

_Barbara Kean-Gordon rounded the corner, storming towards the master bedroom of her family's small home. She was in the midst of throwing clothes into a suitcase when a small voice startled her._

_"Mom?" Barbara turned to look at her daughter, studying the 12 year old's face. "A-are you leaving?"_

_"Honey, I...yes." Seeing the panic in her oldest (and technically only) child's eyes, she quickly made up a lie. "Only for a little while. I'll be back, okay?"_

_The little girl nodded. "Okay."_  
***  
"You never did come back, did you Mom?" The flame-haired vigilante chuckled to herself, her voice bitter. "I suppose I had to get my natural affinity for lying from someone, and it definitely was not Dad."

Movement below her, coming from the warehouse she was observing, broke her out of her reverie. "Okay, then," Barbara Gordon said to no one in particular. "Show time."

Grabbing her signature hand-held flame throwers (even though she hardly ever needed them), she jumped down and crashed through the skylight of the warehouse. However, what she found when she landed was... annoying to say the least.

Everyone on the warehouse was knocked out, and the Red Hood was standing over the last conscious man, a gun pressed to his temple. Her loud, glass-shattering entrance alerted her of his presence immediately, causing him to whip around and a another gun at her. 

Guns were nothing to Barbara. She knew how to operate them like clockwork, and her extensive time and training with the League had most definitely taught her how to dodge and deflect any and all attacks and attackers, especially one as common as a masked gunman.

She charged the Red Hood, causing him to focus all of his attention on her and let go of the low-level thug. As he got up to run away, she sent a small, poison laced throwing star at his arm, causing him to shriek in pain when she hit her target as she always did.

Her and 'the Hood' then traded blows, after she effectively disarmed him by hitting a nerve in his wrists that caused him to lose his grip for a short period of time. With his hands now useless, the next obstacle in her way to defeating him was his legs. He was an extremely skilled opponent; she could tell he would be fun to spar with. The way he moved was familiar, causing her to forgo ending the fight as quickly as possible. She wanted to study his fighting style and technique for just a bit longer. 

But the thing was, he had ruined her plans for the petty thugs congregating in that building; he had to learn his lesson. At least, that's what she told herself. Barbara found herself drawn to his movement, his body. She found herself wondering what the face under that mask looked like.

Then it clicked. His body shape, his movements, his fighting style: they were familiar because she knew him. As her brain pieced together all of the elements, she began to remember exactly what he looked like. It was him. Except she didn't exactly remember who 'him' was. No name came to mind, yet she could vividly picture his face. Barbara couldn't even seem to remember where she had met him. The League, maybe?

"Who are you?" she demanded. They guy just chuckled.

"Not telling." It was definitely him. His voice had the same underlying playful demeanor, even through the thick, paned material of the helmet which made his voice tinny.

 _If he won't take the helmet off, I'll do it myself,_ she decided in her head.

Barbara changed her attacks, now going for his head instead of his ribs and abdomen, looking for a way to unclasp that stupid hood from his head, hoping she wouldn't have to break straight through it. He had such a pretty face. It would be a shame to mess it up with a few ugly cuts and bruises that could scar.

 _Why do I even care?_ Barbara asked herself inside of her mind. A voice in the back of her head said that she had to know who he was, and she also knew that if she ignored that voice, it would drive her crazy.

After a few good swings to Red Hood's head, the outer plates began to crack. She flipped over him, as light as a feather in the air, and elbowed him in the back of the head. Her best guess was that if the helmet had a locking mechanism, it would be at the back.

Sure enough, Barbara felt something vaguely machinery like crack under her elbow, the shock plates evenly distributed around her blood red suit absorbed any pain she might've felt from the sharp metal digging at her skin. Noticing that the mysterious but familiar man was taken by surprise, she dug two fingers into the crack that she had made at the back of the helmet and tugged, the rough shards of metal and glass cutting through the material of her old, almost worn out gloves and slicing her hands open.

_Gotta invest in a better pair of gloves, that's for sure._

Before she could slide the protection all the way off of his head, he threw his leg back into her knee, almost knocking out her knee cap. She reeled backwards, the shock plates and armor mixed with the adrenaline making it less painful than it should've been.

His kick had some power behind it, almost as if he were a superhuman. The man was built pretty big, taller than Barbara by at least three or four inches, and probably outweighed her by a hundred pounds.

The Red Hood righted his helmet, and before Barbara could charge him again, he dropped a small smoke pellet, seemingly disappearing in the smoke. She didn't bother looking for him. She had slapped one of her patches on his jacket, mid-fight. 

The patches had high tech tracking technology that were connected to all of her devices, allowing her to see where he was almost anywhere in the world at all times. All of her tech was connected to various satellites around the world that she had hacked into, bouncing the masked signal back to her so she could have eyes and ears everywhere. The best part is that she found a way to make them blend in with the colors around them. She'd find him again if she really wanted to.


End file.
